Horseback ride pays for defibrillators

Thursday

Apr 13, 2017 at 1:04 PMApr 13, 2017 at 1:13 PM

Joyce Orlando Star_J_Orlando

Jeff Hoyle knows that horsin' around could save a life.

Hoyle's lifelong dream was to take a horse and buggy team to Myrtle Beach, but believed he needed a cause behind the journey. He heard about the need for defibrillators in the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office patrol cars.

Casar residents Hoyle and Randy Smith found the cause they were looking for. They hitched up the team and took a 10-day, 310-mile journey to Myrtle Beach to help buy portable defibrillators for each patrol car. Before their journey, they raised between $6,000 to $7,000. The fund got a boost from the trip.

"We met some of the nicest people you could imagine," Hoyle said. "People would bring us feed for the horses and food for us. When they found out what we were doing, they would hand us money."

Hoyle and Smith collected around $200 along those 310 miles before they thought better of it. To not be a target for robbers, Hoyle encouraged people to send checks directly to the Sheriff's Office. And they did.

"A couple from Myrtle Beach was headed to the mountains in the western part of the state and stopped here in Cleveland County to make a donation," said Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman.

When Smith and Hoyle returned home, they found out more than $12,000 had been donated, including a $4,000 check from Southern Company, a power company in Kings Mountain.

"We can purchase six defibrillators with this," Norman said.

Each defibrillator costs around $2,000, and there are 61 patrol cars, Norman said. The Sheriff thought it would take time to equip all of the patrol cars with the defibrillators, but with the money raised and grant funding they could have them sooner rather than later.

"We currently have three (defibrillators) shared by patrol. Another 10 on back order and six more to be ordered," Norman said.

The Sheriff's Office is also in the running for a grant to help purchase an additional 20.

Norman believes there is a great need to have these defibrillators because EMS in the county has 465 square miles to cover, along with medical transports out of county.

"Deputies patrol their assigned area every night. Sometimes we can get there a few minutes before EMS,and it could save a life," Norman said.

Contact Joyce Orlando at 704-669-3341 or by email at jorlando@shelbystar.com.